As for the platform game market, since the writing of this piece we’ve seen the market go more toward a ‘hybrid’ genre, with richness of interactivity in the environment traded off for more crudely (but competently) implemented multiple genres and sub-games. Conversely we’ve also seen a resurgence of late 80s / early 90s era 2D platform gameplay in the handheld Nintendo DS and Sony PSP consoles.

Current darlings of the scene include the simplistic and charming Loco Roco, which has considerable depth in a simplistic control scheme where you tilt the environment to move the lead character. It also contains concepts where you squish the character and split it up to move through areas of a certain shape and size.

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As for overall game design trends in the last few years, games have taken on a philosophy to become more rewarding. Burnout is the perfect example of this, with players being able to unlock hundreds of bonuses, be they titles, pictures, extra vehicles or special areas. It’s rare to find any sports or general action games nowadays that don’t contain a reward at least once per level or every five to ten minutes. Some games now have more unlockables than actual levels.